


Fairytale Ficlets

by TriplePirouette



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Drablles, F/M, Ficlets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-03-24
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2017-11-02 11:09:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 5,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/368324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriplePirouette/pseuds/TriplePirouette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All of my ficlets/drabbles in the OUAT fandom. Each chapter will be it's own story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: “Um, just about anything fluffy and Rumbelle would be lovely, thanks very much! Especially Belle/Mr. Gold, I love them together and having a few stolen happy moments in Storybrook”  
> For moldybreadcrumbs 1 of 5 random Rumbelle moment drabbles/ficlets. Hope you enjoy!

Belle loved to infuriate Regina. It was one of the things about being in Storybrooke she liked the best: she could flaunt her love in public and be sure that there was not going to be any kind of reprisal, not with everyone around. When an opportunity presented itself, Belle jumped in wholeheartedly.

 

That's why, when Regina just happened to be looking over at the librarian's desk instead of at Henry one afternoon, she interrupted her husband mid-sentence by yanking on his tie and pulling him to her lips. She kissed him, long and thorough, leaning over the polished wood. He sputtered a bit when she finally released him and his tie.

 

Belle only halfheartedly listened to the end of his story, she was much more interested in watching Regina's face turn five shades of red from the corner of her eye.  


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Um, just about anything fluffy and Rumbelle would be lovely, thanks very much! Especially Belle/Mr. Gold, I love them together and having a few stolen happy moments in Storybrook”  
> For moldybreadcrumbs 2 of 5 random Rumbelle moment drabbles/ficlets. Hope you enjoy!

He loved the smell of her hair. It wasn't quite the vague fruit of her shampoo, and definitely not the sharp chemical scent of her hairspray. There was a scent just beneath, something reminiscent of the taste of her skin, but mixed with freedom and sunlight, to which he was addicted. 

When they hugged it was just as much the feel of her body pressed to his as the scent of her hair that he craved. 

He slept with his nose buried in her curls, breathing the scent in like oxygen.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: “Um, just about anything fluffy and Rumbelle would be lovely, thanks very much! Especially Belle/Mr. Gold, I love them together and having a few stolen happy moments in Storybrook”  
> For moldybreadcrumbs 3 of 5 random Rumbelle moment drabbles/ficlets. Hope you enjoy!

He brought her roses. 

Every Monday afternoon, like clockwork, there would be a new rose sitting on her desk in the library. Sometimes red or white or pink, even blue once, but she never saw him leave it there. She would cut the end and slip it into the little vase she kept just for them. Only ever two or three at a time filled the vase, he would take the wilting ones away with him so she never had to throw them out. 

She always wondered if he still had some magic here, if he made the roses appear out of thin air just for her, but then she'd think better of it and shake her head, take a deep breath of their perfume, and go back to shelving and cataloging.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: “Um, just about anything fluffy and Rumbelle would be lovely, thanks very much! Especially Belle/Mr. Gold, I love them together and having a few stolen happy moments in Storybrook”  
> For moldybreadcrumbs 4 of 5 random Rumbelle moment drabbles/ficlets. Hope you enjoy!

The back room of his shop was the best place for kissing. It smelled of old books, thick leather, and something like she imagined magic might smell. When she closed her eyes in that room, when his hands drifted over the curves of her body as his lips made their way to hers, she could imagine they were in another world. A world where it was just the two of them. 

His lips on hers always felt like magic. Their kiss always made her feel like they were two pieces of something bigger coming together, something halved made whole. He'd hold her close and kiss her in that back room and she felt like she was drowning in him, drowning in something akin to love and lust and happiness that she never wanted to escape from. He made her drunk on his kisses and his touch in that room, sneaking away from wide open windows of the shop to be with her. 

They never got too long, or too far, before his bell rang: literally, never metaphorically. He would pull away from her, their lips the last thing to part, and leave her gasping for breath. 

His kisses felt like magic.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: “Um, just about anything fluffy and Rumbelle would be lovely, thanks very much! Especially Belle/Mr. Gold, I love them together and having a few stolen happy moments in Storybrook”  
> For moldybreadcrumbs 5 of 5 random Rumbelle moment drabbles/ficlets. Hope you enjoy!

Even though she tried not to stare, Ruby couldn't help but feel a sense of longing when she looked at Belle and Mr. Gold. No matter what people said, it was easy to see their love was real. She knew for sure- it was all in how people ate together.

People in lust ate on the same side of a booth. They'd sit too close and make ridiculous faces at one another while feeding each other forkfuls of whatever was on the plate they were sharing. 

People who were just friends, or colleagues, ate in bubbles. Their food was theirs and theirs alone. There were barriers, borders, and things like salt were never reached for, but passed over enemy lines. 

People whose love was falling apart? They ate quiet meals full of tense words. Their familiar motions were halted mid-move: a forkful almost offered but pulled back, a hand frozen too far over a new borderline. 

Mr. Gold and the lovely lady who was constantly with him, however, ate like an old married couple. They sat on opposite sides of the booth. They reached across the table and stole forkfuls of pasta and mashed potatoes. When the plates were first delivered they'd always end up in a well choreographed flurry of silverware: she'd take his carrots while he took her mushrooms, or she'd pass half her chicken over in exchange for a piece of garlic bread. They didn't need words or negotiations, it just happened. They'd lean in close over tea and share whispered secrets. For dessert he always ordered the apple pie, extra a-la-mode. 

Ruby loved how he always pretended to be mad that she'd eaten all of his ice cream, because she knew that when Mr. Gold came in by himself and ordered apple pie, he always got it without the ice cream.


	6. Belle Sings, v1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompted by wondertwinc on Tumblr: Belle Sings

It was the one thing that always surprised him. The one flaw in his otherwise flawless love. The tiny thorn on the beautiful rose that was his Belle. 

She couldn't sing. 

His poor Belle loved to sing, but she was positively tone deaf. All throughout the house she hummed off key and sang songs from her childhood in horribly odd octaves. When she sang along with the radio she was somewhat, almost, partially tolerable because she nearly matched the pitch. 

But she was always just slightly off. Just enough off pitch, in fact, to drive him nearly insane. He'd be trying to balance the books, or reviewing his ledger of deals, or just trying to read and she'd hit that one note that she always hit and he'd turn to her, ready to once and for all ask her to stop...

...and she'd smile at him. She'd smile and ask if she was singing too loudly. And she was always so damn happy that all of the irritation melted away. 

“No, my dear,” he always said, “I love your singing.”


	7. Belle Sings, v2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompted by wondertwinc on Tumblr, Belle Sings take two.

Belle sings. Each moan and gasp from her lips is like a symphony. 

He thought her dead, he thought her lost. But she is here, in his arms, held by his hands, underneath his fingertips. He would never, never let go again. And each second that he can he touches her. He runs his thumb over her knuckles when their hands are joined and she makes that happy, content sound. 

She moans when his lips meet hers, high and light in the back of her throat. 

Her breath catches at the most delightful cord when he runs his fingers up her spine. 

Belle whimpers, the softest, sweetest noise when his lips slide up the side of her neck, when he pulls her back against him and lets his nose drift over the crest of her ear and kisses her in that little hallow behind the lobe. 

The way she breathes out low and heavy when he drags his tongue down her torso, her body relaxing to the softness of their bed, is like a prayer. 

Sometimes he touches her just to hear the little rush of air from her lips at the feel of his fingers twining with hers because it reminds him that she's alive and breathing. Sometimes he takes her, hard and fast to hear her cry out because he needs to know that she's alive and real and writhing underneath him. She is the most decadent instrument he has ever known. Each kiss, each touch, eliciting a different delightful tone from her and he will never get enough of hearing her sing for him.


	8. Seasonal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompted: “Belle wants Girl Scout Cookies” by andachippedcup on Tumblr

What Belle didn’t understand was that Girl Scout cookies were seasonal. He couldn’t just pop down the street and pick up a pack of Thin Mints.

Sure, she had been mostly satisfied by something called Grasshoppers made by a group poorly imitating elves, but she looked accusingly at him with each bite she took. It was his own damn fault. He should have known- you never start with the good stuff. He could have started with Lorna Doones, Famous Amos, or that unnamed brand down at the end of the aisle that was always on sale. But he started with the best. He gave her, for her first Storybrooke cookie, his last box of Thin Mints.

The rest of his Girl Scout cookie hoard was subsequently hunted down and devoured. The little girls with the brown and green sashes wouldn’t be around for another six months, and the small shelf in the pantry would stay sadly empty until then. She didn’t understand that you had to ration the Samoas, that the Tagalongs couldn’t just be eaten with your afternoon tea, and that for the love of all that was magical, Thin Mints should not be devoured so quickly.

Even with his magic, he couldn’t conjure a proper replacement. He would just have to find a better hiding place and order twice… no, three times as many cookies. Until then, those half assed replacements by those damned little elves would have to suffice.


	9. In Gold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompted by Iambicdearie based on Klimt's "The Kiss"

Feeling his magic was like being draped in gold. It was molten but not hot, smooth but strong. His lips met hers and the magic surrounded them in soft purple smoke. His hand fisted in her hair as it traveled up their bodies, wrapping and weaving in delicate layers until they were the only two people in the world, until there was nothing bur the feel of his fingers under her blouse and his lean frame in her arms and his magic wrapping around them.

The magic overtook them, making the air heavier to breathe when she pulled from his lips with a gasp to fill her lungs. He didn’t stop, just kissed his way across her jaw and down her throat. The magic engulfed him, slid over his skin and tingled where they touched.

It made her feel faint. It made her feel strong. As their bodies slid against one another, it made her feel like his.  

[](http://3pirouette.tumblr.com/post/30177516913/drabble-in-gold-1-1)


	10. Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AN-I know that this seems like Milah hate, but it’s not, just a plot device. I do think it’s possible, if she were desperate enough, she would have lied to Jones. Also, though I’m still generally in the “Hook is a bad guy” camp, I tend to believe he has a soft spot for children, as displayed when he discussed the Lost Boys during Tallahassee.

Gold deftly deflected another parry of Hook’s blade, blasting him back with a bit of magic. “I’m done with this, she has my son!” Gold took his cane to the man’s throat, pressing, his voice tight and mocking. “What would your True Love say if she could see you now, defending the woman that holds her son hostage?”

Hook stared at the snarling crocodile, too human before him in his nice suit as he pushed him away. “What do you mean, son?”

Gold reached out, smacking his cane against the wall of Regina’s shattered office where they fought. “Cora has my son, Baelfire. That little boy you just saw was my son. Milah’s son. The boy whose mother you stole.” Gold let the words drip slowly from his lips, his distain palpable. “What more do you need to understand?”

Hook let his sword fall to his side, holding his hook up in a surrendering gesture. “Wait, I…” Hook shook his head, confusing the man before him. “Milah had a son?”

Gold’s eyebrows knit together tightly, his cane poking the man in the chest. “No, that was a strange boy who followed me into a tavern and called her Mama.” Gold pressed past Hook, smacking him across the chest. “Now if you’re done-”

“She said he wasn’t hers.”

Gold turned, eyes wide. “What?”

Hook had the curtesy to look remorseful. “When she told me she wanted to run away with me… she told me that the boy was a bastard you’d fathered with a whore.” Hook looked up just in time to see Gold mask the heartbreak in his eyes. “I never would have taken her on if I thought she’d be leaving her own son motherless.”

Gold barked a harsh laugh. “How chivalrous of you.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter now anyway.”

Hook stood tall. “It does.” Gold stared at him, cane shaking in his hand. “You don’t hurt children. Adults… they can make their own decisions. You don’t go after children.” Hook walked to Gold, his eyes dark. “She has a hold on me, but it’s not very strong.”

Gold appraised him. “She has your heart?”

“No, but she’s touched it, and that seems to be enough.” Hood slid his blade home, holding out his hand. “I will help you save your son, though I make no promises beyond that.”

Gold shook it strongly. “Cease fire in the face of a common enemy.” Gold pulled Hook’s hand as he moved to let go, leaning into his face. “The deal is you will help my son to safety, and you will never harm a hair on his head. Is that understood?”

Hook stood tall, even with Gold’s face mere inches from his own. “Deal.”


	11. Prompt 1: Inspired by The Corrs “Summer Sunshine”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> askbox fic written for keenquing

He always came back in the summer. Her Rumpelstiltskin was gone during the depths of winter and the cool falls and the warm springs, bouncing across the country looking for his son. He’d left when the curse broke, with a promise that he’d come back.

She couldn’t leave.

She’d finally started building her own life with her own friends and her own responsibilities. As exciting as getting away from the small town was, it was even more exciting to her to be setting up a different life than she’d had. She wasn’t a princess, wasn’t a high born lady that was looked down upon for her interest in learning and books.

Here she was Belle, the town librarian, who knew about every book in her library and if you had a question she didn’t know the answer to, you’d find the answer together.

Belle was proud of her new life, as nearly as proud of it as she was Rumpelstiltskin. He’d grown so much, sharing dates with her at Granny’s and holding his tongue. She could see the humanity in him blooming under her attention, saw the darkness in his eyes retreat just a little more each day.

They’d come to an impasse, however. It was a natural parting moment. She’d given up everything she’d ever had to go with him once and, with tears in her eyes, she told him that she wouldn’t do it again.

She’d had dreams, fantasies really, of seeing the world by his side. Of settling down with him and his young son. Of maybe starting their own family one day or not. But his search wasn’t adventurous vacations or a lifetime of traveling, and he’d told her as much.

It was long, tedious, and took him to unremarkable places. Belle tried to see herself living out of a car and from hotel to motel, happy to be by his side and losing herself in books, but to her it seemed a bleak and lonely fate.

For the first time in her life she had true friends, she had responsibilities, and she was flourishing with them. He’d only smiled, wiping away her tears when she told him. They spent the night cuddled together under soft down blankets.

He talked of finding his son, and she told him of how she’d be waiting.

Theirs was True Love, a love they both worked hard for and deserved. Neither were willing to give that up, but neither were willing to give up their dreams.

And so he left the next morning, the first of September, with a kiss and a smirk.

There were phone calls and postcards, letters and e-mails. They weren’t ever out of touch, but his physical touch was what she missed on the cold, snowy winter nights. She’d call him, just to hear his voice. He’d taken to finding old books on his travels and reading to her, helping her fall asleep.

Three years now had come and gone. The first day of June he’d knock on her door, even with her key in his pocket, and kiss her soundly. They’d spend three months together, hidden away in his house or hers when she wasn’t working and he wasn’t clearing out the rest of his shop’s inventory. It was three months of bliss, of the fantasies she still kept close to her heart. It was the life they’d both worked so hard to achieve.

But every September first he left, a determined set to his shoulders as she bit her lip and watched him drive away. Baelfire was still out there, and he’d never rest until he found him.

Some nights she wondered if this was to be her lie: three months of bliss and nine months of living. Some days she wondered if she’d finally give it all up, if she’d go with him the next time September rolled around, but then she’d see the smiling faces of the children in her storytime circle, or spend a night out with Ruby and remember the years in shackles at the Queen’s hands and his car simply felt like another prison.

She never offered to go, he never asked.

It was May sixteenth when there was a knock at her door, she sprinted over with dripping hair and her robe haphazardly tied to her body. People almost never knocked on her door, unannounced visitors were rare. She paused, hand on the knob, and took a deep breath. As much as she wanted it to be him it was a month too early. The sun wasn’t high enough, the days not warm enough for him to make an appearance. She tried to force herself to not be disappointed when she opened the door.

He was facing away from her, leaning on his gold tipped cane, hair blowing lightly in the breeze. When he turned, he had a smile on his face. “Rum,” she breathed, her heart pounding in her chest.

He reached out a hand, caressing her jaw. “I found him.” The smile on his face burst with joy, the words having been said out loud. She launched herself at him, hugging tightly. She’d stopped dreaming this day was possible, had stopped thinking about what it would be like when he could stop searching, when he could finally stay, when he could be hears again. He leaned forward, kissing her sweetly, the joy bubbling to a laugh at his lips as they kissed on her front porch. She pulled back, staring into his eyes. May had always been the hardest: so far away from the last time she saw him, yet so very close to seeing him again.

There wouldn’t be any more Mays like that, no more months alone in the cold winters, no more spring days with no one to hold her hand. She wrapped her arms around his neck, unable to keep the smile off her face. “I can’t believe you’re here, now. Come in…” He shook his head. “No?”

He kissed her again, soft and sweet and warm. “No, go get dressed. I’m taking you home.”

“Home?” she asked, delightfully puzzled.

His fingers combed her wet hair back from her cheek.

“My house, for a start, to meet Baelfire.” He sighed holding her tight, his cane pressing so familiarly into her back. “Then dinner, and after that, well… I’d say there’s quite a lot to discuss.”

Belle shook, she was so happy. She trembled in his arms and was afraid if he let go her legs might not hold her up. She felt silly, and feminine, and wholly unlike the woman she’d become, but in this moment she was a girl in love, and her true love had come home.

She let herself feel silly, let herself cling to him and kiss his again. She would never have this moment again in her life, and she never wanted to forget it.

She held Rumpelstiltskin and was held by him in the late spring sun, thinking of each warm, summer kiss they’d exchanged. There were so many summer kisses ahead of them, to be joined by spring walks in the park and falls carving pumpkins and winters… winters reading to one another, curled up in the same bed, content and loved.

“I missed you,” Belle whispered, thinking that perhaps it was the first time she’d said it in three years. They’d been so stoic, so brave before, even when it was just a facade. The time for that was over. “I never told you, but I should have. I wasn’t brave. I missed you, and I hated when you left.”

He held her close, touching their foreheads together, the fingers of his free hand splayed across her back and rubbing. “I’ll keep your secret, sweetheart. Nobody needs to know.”  

 


	12. Inspired by Leonard Cohen “I’m Your Man”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> askbox fic written for keenquing

 

Rumpelstiltskin held the small key in his hand, hovering over the box. It was a simple gesture, perhaps too simple.

Though, in a way, perhaps it was too elaborate. Maybe she’d think he was trying too hard.

Belle had only been back in his life for a few weeks, but he couldn’t picture her lost to him again. Even when they were broken, she still managed to make him a better man.

He’d give nearly anything to have that all time, to be able to give her gifts, to be able to protect her and shower her with gifts.

She brought out the humanity in him, reminded him that his heart wasn’t the cold place he’d made it to be. When he looked at Belle, Rumpelstiltskin felt the pangs of love and longing that he hadn’t felt since he was a boy. She put him in touch with a person that he hadn’t been in centuries.

He twisted the key in his hand. Finding a gift for her, something to prove to her that he was serious, that he wanted to try, that he wanted her to be her own person and to choose him… that had been the hardest part. The library had been in the middle of the list somewhere, between antique first edition books and a baby.

She always surprised him, especially when he tried to do nice things for her. He’d tried to save her from her father, but he’d only served to enrage her more. She never reacted quite the way he thought she would.

He fisted the key tight, trying to clear his mind. Perhaps, hopefully, maybe this would be the first in a line of many. Maybe, after today, she’d let him slowly back into her life.

Maybe… maybe she’d be better off without him.

He pressed the key into the box, closing it tight. No matter if she wanted him or not, he knew he’d still do anything for her. Even just to be able to glimpse that smile that put the beast to rest, he’d try to change. Each change started with a single step. This was his.  


	13. Dinglehoppers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous prompted: I was wondering if you could write Belle meeting Ariel in Storybrook and Ariel shows Belle how things work and that in this world they use forks as hairbrushes.

Mr. Gold left her in the kitchen, holding a glass of water. He told her he would only be a minute, that he needed to get something from the back of the house.

  
  


It was a lie.

  
  


He was so lost, so confused. His heart beat rapidly and he didn’t know what to think. She wasn’t supposed to be alive. He’d looked, he’d checked, he thought Regina had lied, but he’d never found a trace of her, never found anything to disprove her story.

  
  


But Belle was here, alive, in his home. He didn’t need anything from the back of the house, he just needed time. He needed a second to think, to breathe, to come to terms with the fact that she was here now and that he needed to factor that in. Could he still bring magic? Should he?

  
  


His hands shook. Yes, yes he had to. He took a deep breath and walked back toward the front of the house where he left her. “Belle?” She turned, a fork buried deep in her hair. He tried to keep his face neutral, to not show how confused he was, but it was difficult. “Belle, what are you doing?”

  
  


“Why do you keep your dinglehoppers in the kitchen?” She carefully pulled the fork through her hair, smiling at him.

  
  


He walked over slowly, taking the fork from her hands and the knots in her hair. “Belle, who told you what this was?”

  
  


Her brows furrowed as she watched him pull a comb from his pocket. “Um, there was a girl, she was in the asylum with me. Her name was Ariel. She said they gave them to us with the food so we could brush our hair.”

  
  


“Regina’s little mermaid, of course…” he mumbled under his breath. Gold showed her the comb, then slowly started pulling it through the ends of her hair. “I’m afraid you’ve been misinformed, my dear. That is called a fork and it is used to eat. This is called a comb and it is used for hair.”

  
  


Belle stepped back, looking at the two sides of her hair. The one she’d pulled the fork through was still snarled, the one he’d combed was frizzy, but far smoother and sported less tangles. She pressed her lips together then dropped her eyes, “Oh, I… I’m sorry I used your… fork? Your fork like that, then.”

  
  


He lifted her chin, smiling softly. “No need to be sorry, you were simply misinformed.” Her eyes were so empty, so haunted, that it hurt to look at her. He didn’t know what to do about it, not yet, but he hoped that Emma would figure out that her love would wake the boy up soon, he was betting on breaking the curse to jog her memory. If that didn’t work, well, he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. “Jefferson told you I’d take care of you, and I promised that I would. That includes teaching you things you don’t know. Nothing to be sorry for, nothing to be embarrassed about.”

  
  


Belle sighed, smiling softly. It made his heart beat faster. “Thank you.”

  
  


“Of course.” He sighed, placing the comb in her hand. “You can finish in the car, we’ve got a bit of a drive ahead of us.”

  
  


“Where are we going?” She asked, following him through the house.

  
  


“A very special well.”  


	14. Blue-Eyed Monster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompted by Anonymous and Rosecoveredtardis: Belle is jealous when someone else shows interest in Mr. Gold.

“Ruby, who is that?”

Belle pointed across the street. From inside Granny’s, Belle and Ruby could clearly see the two people talking on the sidewalk. One of them happened to be Rum, the other was someone that Belle didn’t recognize, but quickly decided she didn’t like.

The woman wore a tight sheathe dress that pushed her breasts nearly up to her neck, but it was the way she kept pressing her chest forward, the way she kept touching Rum’s collar, the flirty look in her eyes and how her tongue kept darting out to lick her lips that bothered Belle.

Ruby let out a disgusted breath. “In this world or in ours?”

Belle crossed her arms, her fists tight and her jaw clenched. “Both. Who is she?”

Ruby watched the woman shamelessly throw herself at Gold. Even though he didn’t react, he didn’t stop her advances, either. “In the old world she was a siren. I think her name was Teles? I’m not positive. I never had much reason to talk to her, but I heard stories. Here? She’s Jessie, probably the only girl in town with a worse reputation than me.”

Belle sighed, reaching out and rubbing her hand across Ruby’s back. “Well, your reputation is on the mend every day now that people remember.” She pulled her hand back, though, and fisted it as she watched Rum smirk as the woman leaned up and whispered in his ear. “My reputation, however…”

Ruby turned, her eyes wrinkled together. “Your reputation?”

“Yeah,” Belle growled as she watched the woman tease the hairs on Gold’s neck before he politely dodges her fingers, “My reputation will surely change after I break her nose!” She turned, stomping out the door. Belle wasn’t much of a flirt, but she’d seen far too many women at court behave like this to not recognize it. This woman wanted her man, and that would not stand.

“Oh Rum!” Belle called, sweet as pie as she crossed the street with barely a look for the cars. Ruby stopped short at the door to Granny’s, watching closely.

Rum turned, a wide grin on his face. “Ah, Belle! Just the-” He was cut of by Belle’s lips. She kissed him, hard and throughly. Though he attempted to protest, he gave in for a moment before pulling back, licking his lips. “Well, yes.” He cleared his throat and let his arm wind around Belle as she clung to him. “Belle, this is Jessie. An old acquaintance.”

“An…  _old_  acquaintance?” Belle asked, stroking her hand over Rum’s chest.

Jessie went to open her mouth, but Rum cut her off quickly. “Yes, old. She was just reminiscing about some times that never quite were. Are you ready to go?”

Belle wrapped her fingers in his, feeling triumphant as Jessie’s hopeful expression turned dark and sour. “Yes, I believe I am.”

Even after they turned away, Belle glanced back at the woman. Her body language screamed that this wasn’t over, but Belle would never give in, and Rum still had quite a lot to answer for when they got home. 


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompted by andachippedcup: Belle doesn’t like mechanical pencils

Belle doesn’t like plastic. Something about the feel of it, the hardness, bothers her. She’d always been fed on metal trays in metal bowls with metal cups in this world, and they’d had nothing like it in the other. The first time she feels plastic is when she picks up a mechanical pencil.

She nearly drops it again, but Rumpelstiltskin presses it into her fingers and glides it over the page and kisses her on the cheek when she stares at it, baffled.

When he’s gone she pulls it apart, trying to figure out how it works, what it is, and why there isn’t an ink pot it needs to be dipped in.

He comes home to all of his mechanical pencils dismantled, springs and plastic and long, thin graphite all over the floor. She smiles from the kitchen table, proud of her work as she pulls feathers out of his antique duster, sharpening their edges and dipping them into a bowl of smashed blueberries to write her shopping list.

He can’t help but laugh.  


	16. Images

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompted by andachippedcup: He teaches her to use a camera

Belle’s delighted by the idea of a camera. Even if it is mostly plastic, she puts up with the feel to capture images. He teaches her the basics: zoom, focus, capture. After she snaps a handful of blurry pictures around the house he sends her out into the town, thinking he’ll have a few dozen pictures for him to show her how to upload on the computer later.

After dinner she sits on his lap, bouncing with giddy delight as each picture of over 500 pops up on the screen as they download from the memory card. He thinks her precious, though a bit silly, as they all flash across the screen as she chatters away, marveling at how so many things fit in such a tiny piece of metal and plastic. There are seven pictures of a bunny in grass, five of the clock tower, picture after picture of people that she had come across in town, most smiling but a few candids and many, many slightly blurry ones.

“Oh, Rum, isn’t it wonderful?” She kisses him and in her joy he simply can’t be annoyed with the twenty-six blurry pictures of the sunset. “We’ll have an exact portrait of all these things forever and ever. No horribly botched paintings, no trying to remember, just a real live, image of it forever and ever just the way it was!”

He can’t help it, he reaches over and takes the camera, clicking off picture after picture of her delight as she watches the computer work. “Oh yes,” he whispers, a smile blooming at the thought of these wonderful pictures of his love. He would have done anything for a picture of her all those years ago, now he can have as many as he wishes. “Wonderful.”


	17. A Flicker of Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: David/James thoughts on Rumbelle  
> for: anon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It helps to know that this is set right after the scene in A Land Without Magic where Rum gives Charming the True Love to hide. That’ll help give you some perspective.

In a sick, twisted way, it made sense. Everyone in their world had a true love to find, why would it be different for a monster? Who knew what kind of woman she was, either. Not all true loves were Beautiful and smart and amazing like Snow. Perhaps Rumpelstiltskin’s true love was as evil and dark as he: a sorceress or witch maybe. The idea stuck with Charming as he rode on, his mind wandering to what kind of woman could be a brightness in the Dark One’s life, and when that could have been if the imp was as old as they said he was.

Rumpelstiltskin was a cruel, evil thing, but that didn’t mean he always had been. Perhaps everyone deserved a true love, and the loss of that love…

Well, he could see how losing that love would lead to a horrible downward spiral. His own future seemed to hinge on this princess, and he didn’t know how he could move forward without her, though he knew that he might be forced to that one day. Perhaps he shouldn’t judge just yet.

Charming spurred his steed on. He would not lose Snow like Rumpelstiltskin lost his love. Maybe the imp really wanted to help, spurred on by his own loss, or maybe he had darker reasons. Either way, Charming wasn’t going to ask questions as long as the Dark One’s help led him to Snow.  


End file.
